“Sooner or later the balloon would have been at the mercy of the waves. The valve was opened, and the balloon descended through the thick clouds. We could see nothing, but the little jerks showed us that the guide-rope was touching the ground. In a few seconds we saw the ground, and learned that we were descending into a forest which enclosed a number of small lakes. At once more ballast was thrown out, and we skimmed along over the tops of the trees. Soon we crossed a big lake, and saw a place that seemed suitable for a descent. The valve was then opened, both of us gave a tug at the ripping cord, and after a few bumps we found ourselves on the ground. We had come down in deep snow on the side of a wood, about 14 miles from the railway station at Markaryd.
Making a landing with the aid of bystanders to pull down upon the trail-rope and a holding rope.
“We packed up our instruments, and began to look out for a cottage; but this is not always an easy task in the dead of night in a foreign country. However, in a quarter of an hour we found a farm, and succeeded in rousing the inmates. A much more difficult job was to influence them to open their front door to two men who talked some sort of double Dutch, and who suddenly appeared at a farmyard miles off the highway in the middle of the night and demanded admittance. Berson can talk in six languages, but unfortunately Swedish is not one of them. He begged in the most humble way for shelter ... and at the end of three-quarters of an hour the farmer opened the door. We showed him some pictures of a balloon we had with us, and then they began to understand the situation. We were then received with truly Swedish hospitality, and provided with supper. They even proposed to let us have their beds; but this we naturally declined with many thanks.... The yard contained hens, pigs, cows, and sheep; but an empty corner was found, which was well packed with straw, and served as a couch for our tired limbs. We covered ourselves with our great-coats, and tried to sleep. But the temperature was 10° Fahr., and as the place was only an outhouse of boards roughly nailed together, and the wind whistling through the cracks and crevices, we were not sorry when the daylight came.”
Lest the possibility of accident to travellers by balloon be judged greater than it really is, it may be well to state that records collected in Germany in 1906 showed that in 2,061 ascents in which 7,570 persons participated, only 36 were injured—or but 1 out of 210. Since that time, while the balloon itself has remained practically unchanged, better knowledge of atmospheric conditions has aided in creating an even more favorable record for recent years.
That the day of ordinary ballooning has not been dimmed by the advent of the airship and the aeroplane is evidenced by the recently made estimate that not less than 800 spherical balloons are in constant use almost daily in one part or another of Christendom. And it seems entirely reasonable to predict that with a better comprehension of the movements of air-currents—to which special knowledge the scientific world is now applying its investigations as never before—they will come a great increase of interest in simple ballooning as a recreation.
Chapter XIV.
BALLOONS: THE DIRIGIBLE.
Elongation of gas-bag—Brisson—Meusnier—Air-ballonnets—Scott—Giffard—Haenlein—Tissandier—Renard and Krebs—Schwartz—Santos-Dumont—Von Zeppelin—Roze—Severo—Bradsky-Leboun—The Lebaudy dirigible—Zeppelin II—Parseval I—Unequal wind pressures—Zeppelin III—Nulli Secundus—La Patrie—Ville-de-Paris—Zeppelin IV—Gross I—Parseval II—Clement-Bayard I—Ricardoni’s airship—Gross II—The new Zeppelin II—La Republique—The German fleet of dirigibles—Parseval V—The Deutschland—The Erbslöh—Gross III—Zeppelin VI—The America—Clement-Bayard III—The Capazza lenticular dirigible.
The dirigible balloon, or airship, is built on the same general principles as the ordinary balloon—that is, with the envelope to contain the lifting gas, the car to carry the load, and the suspending cordage—but to this is added some form of propelling power to enable it to make headway against the wind, and a rudder for steering it.